For those of you who want to build some protection for yourselves, think about adding some small bank stock (w/low exposure to commercial real estate), some ultra-short treasury ETF's and some gold stock to your portfolio.

In his efforts to beat back the eurozone's financial bushfire and stop it from swallowing up Spain, the prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, has been forced to bin election pledges and to concentrate on the ultra-short term.

Schwab's year-earlier period was hit by a roughly $200 million charge to settle a federal class-action lawsuit related to its YieldPlus ultra-short bond fund; that charge essentially wiped out its earnings that quarter.